Phoebe Smith   Disquiet. Squirming, urgent agency: this moment is unbearable. The doorman, Bernie, has hastily shoved everyone out at exactly 2am as he always does, his fervent protection of me and the other Gordie’s staff, and of his own anticipated bedtime. It’s 2.05 now. Through the padded door, you can hear the multitude of […]

Mir-Yashar Seyedbagheri   Every weekend, David goes to Bavo’s Bar on Luther Street to meet the fellow members of the State Social Justice Network, or ‘Hatebusters’ as they call themselves. They plot and figure out their course of action. They elaborate, pontificate on plans to make the state great and loving again, to beat back […]

Fiona Cassim   Johnlee82 sent you a message. ‘Can’t wait,’ I muttered around the pen jammed in my mouth and clicked to open the envelope icon on the screen. Two days into the surreal world of internet dating and already it was becoming tedious. Eighteen new messages sat in my inbox and 567 men wanted […]

Sara Marchant   The wedding was held at the Rancho del Cortes and Eva was one of twelve bridesmaids. The bride was the daughter of a wealthy benefactress of the women’s clinic Eva’s mother ran in Mexico and, for unknown reasons, Eva was asked to participate. It was a great honour, they were ‘society’, and […]

Matthew Morgan   First, you see the sweeping shape of a looming wave, perfect blue coming right at you, but it’s not moving. Then, as you follow the crowds of people through the room, you see that it’s not a wave, it’s a whale. You wonder what kind of whale it is, then you wonder […]

Phoebe Smith was born in Sacramento, California. She studied writing at Humboldt State University and subsequently lived in Bulgaria and Germany as an au pair for several years, before returning to California and diving into a career. She currently lives in a small town in wine country with her partner and a dangerously large cat. […]

Mir-Yashar Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA programme in fiction. A recipient of two honourable mentions from Glimmer Train, his flash piece ‘Strangers’ was also nominated for The Best Small Fictions. Mir-Yashar’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Unstamatic, Terror House Magazine, Ariel Chart, and 50 Word Stories, among other […]

Fiona Cassim lives in the hills of Wicklow, Ireland. She has an MA in English Literature from University College Dublin. She contributes to the Irish Times and the Irish Independent. As well as writing, she enjoys reading, eating, and cuddles with her husband Ben and kitten Salem.   Q: Is there a book that you […]

Having lived in Canada, England, and Mexico, Matthew Morgan is currently writing from the UK and making his way around Europe. His website, Art of Conversation, features monthly essays exploring life, culture, and meaning through literature, cinema, and music.   Q: What is the first book you remember reading or having read to you as […]

Since graduating with a degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, Chloë Ashby has been working in journalism. She is an associate editor in the Books department at Monocle and a freelance arts writer based in London. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, FT Life & Arts, 1843 and others. In 2019, Chloë graduated from the […]